how to say goodbye

[Nickeris86]

i have two books that i am working on right now, one is an urban fantasy series, the other is a science fiction piece.

i have more done on the science fiction piece because i turned the first two chapters in as an assignment for my creative writing fiction class. it needs a lot of revision but I'll worry about that latter. i have however hit a wall in the stories progression. i know where i want the character to end up but getting him there is proving difficult.

my issue is that aliens have resiliently made peaceful contact with the nations of earth and are asking inviting everyday people to become ambassadors for earth so that the aliens can see if we are ready to deal with being part of their big intergalactic government thingy.

any way the problem i am having is that my main character is the definition of average, so that means he has a loving family on earth that he has to say good bye too, and i have no idea how to go about having him say good bye to his entire family, possibly forever, while he goes off and lives with a bunch of aliens. i have no frame of reference for that in my personal life.

basically i need some help in figuring out how to get this guy off earth and having parted ways with his family on good but sad terms. any help will be much appreciated.

[meg_evonne]

... i have no idea how to go about having him say good bye to his entire family, possibly forever, while he goes off and lives with a bunch of aliens. i have no frame of reference for that in my personal life.  basically i need some help in figuring out how to get this guy off earth and having parted ways with his family on good but sad terms. any help will be much appreciated.

There are several classic sci fi works that do this, but it's better to go to an original source and this one is unfortunately an easy one.  Check your area for troops being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Usually there is a large publicly announced community event for troops, families, community neighbors.  Just show up with a notebook, a tape recorder, and a box of tissues.  Find a quite corner of the bleachers and just be there.  The emotion, the dialog, and the facts will drip from the walls and the light fixtures.  If you don't get enough, I'm sure you will find people who are willing to talk about it with you in their homes after the event is over.

[meh]

Dude.   

You get to write a story about a wake where the person being waked is present.

You can even include all the snide cr8p people store up for years.

"You conceited putz, I've hated you since you tore my doll at age six".

"I never liked your nose".

[meg_evonne]

Dude.   

You get to write a story about a wake where the person being waked is present.

You can even include all the snide cr8p people store up for years.

"You conceited putz, I've hated you since you tore my doll at age six".

"I never liked your nose".

  BRILLIANT! 

[Nickeris86]

Dude.   

You get to write a story about a wake where the person being waked is present.

You can even include all the snide cr8p people store up for years.

"You conceited putz, I've hated you since you tore my doll at age six".

"I never liked your nose".

ummm yeah that does sound like a fun story but i am not sure what that has to do with my current dilemma?

[Shecky]

ummm yeah that does sound like a fun story but i am not sure what that has to do with my current dilemma?

Everything, if that's the way you decide he's to say good-bye.

[Nickeris86]

doesn't really fit with the story. he's leaving the planet he's not dead, and he is only saying good by to his emdiat family. mom, dad, little sister, dogs

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

any way the problem i am having is that my main character is the definition of average, so that means he has a loving family on earth that he has to say good bye too, and i have no idea how to go about having him say good bye to his entire family, possibly forever, while he goes off and lives with a bunch of aliens. i have no frame of reference for that in my personal life.

Why did he choose to go with the aliens ? What are his reasons, and how much of his family agree with them ?  Or did he choose at all ?

[Nickeris86]

Why did he choose to go with the aliens ? What are his reasons, and how much of his family agree with them ?  Or did he choose at all ?

he went with them cause his life was boring. he had just been fired from his dead end job, he graduated collage but there were no opportunities for him to get a better job. his love life was non extant and he was really just having a really really bad day. when the offer came he didn't so much jump at the chance, he mulled it over, but how often do you get asked to go into space and learn about an alien culture and society. basically this is his travel abroad faze that some college students go through after graduation, only for him its the cosmos.

his parents are supportive of his decision in the since that they are going to miss him but they do think that its an opertunity that he can't pass up. i just have no idea how to vocalize their actual conversation.

[meh]

doesn't really fit with the story. he's leaving the planet he's not dead,

That's exactly the point.    If he were dead, it would be a real wake and people would be too de mortuis nil nisi bonum to come out with spiteful stuff.

and he is only saying good by to his emdiat family. mom, dad, little sister, dogs

If that's how you want to play it.

[The Corvidian]

Have his little sister get really pissed at him, mainly because he is leaving, but partly because she can't go with him. She has a screaming/crying hissy fit.

[Shecky]

doesn't really fit with the story. he's leaving the planet he's not dead, and he is only saying good by to his emdiat family. mom, dad, little sister, dogs

For all practical purposes, it's the same thing as dying: he's gone, never to come back. If there are long-standing familial issues, a lot of people would see that as the perfect time to air them.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

That's exactly the point.    If he were dead, it would be a real wake and people would be too de mortuis nil nisi bonum to come out with spiteful stuff.

OK, your cultural context for "wakes" must be very different from mine.

[ahra]

You could look at some history books. Lots of cultures (esp Irish) threw  similar wakes for loved ones when they were emigrating to Amercia as it was considered a one way trip .

[Nickeris86]

no wakes. there are time restraints and he is not of a wake popular culture. i just need help in how to say an emotional farewell right before he walks onto the ship.